Pets Win Prizes

Here is the audio for KPET which went out on Shortwave Gold on Sunday 8th October 2023. Have a liston to a great show that has lots of pet related tunes and dedications going out to collie dogs, guinea pigs and budgies owners.

Beginning the show at 00.00 is a 15 minutes mix called “A tribute to Fido, Twinkie and Sheba” from One Deck Pet(e) and here’s the tracks:
oofoe – goldfish
Naslah – Cats & dogs
Cat Stevens – Was dog a donut
Benhayyi Al Baghbaghan – Salute the parrot (excerpt)
Soothsayers/Victor Rice – Glass fish dub

So fill up the dog bowl, put the cover over the parrot cage and enjoy the show!

Not another product withdrawal

Yesterday we took a trip to Lldl to see if there were any “When it’s gone, it’s gone” bargains during this week’s special: “Flavour of the week: Eastern & Central Europe”. Alongside some wareniki and cherry jaffa cakes we bought another pack of Tulips. We did like the graphics at the top especially the “No knife and fork should be used to plant these bulbs” sign. Which got us thinking…

Years ago whilst waiting for a large bag of chicken breasts at the Butchers in Leather Lane EC1 we were told a silly tale from one of the market guys which went something like this: “A mate of mine was taken into hospital the other week as he had food poisoning” to which we replied “Sorry to hear that mate”. “Yeah he made himself a spaghetti bolognese and he didn’t have any onions so he cut up some tulip bulbs and used them instead” said the cockney bloke. “He’s okay, the doctors said he’ll be out in the spring”.

Have a good Sunday and enjoy the great weather today!

On a late summer tip

We’ll be having a late summer this week the BBC has just informed us. For us gardeners that means more watering but hopefully will make the harvest “window” open for a lot longer than usual. We hope so, as the butternut squash plant (we assume it is) is setting more fruits and the one we have already is getting a little larger.

And as the sun is coming here’s a nice balearic tune to chill out called Un Placer Celestial (Reprise) from Tambores En Benirrasout of Barrow-in-Furness. Some nice summery vibes here.

And some summer themed reggae from Bobby Kalphat.

And one to play later in the evening as the sun goes down is an excellent bass heavy track from 2020 from Khotin called Finds you well. It’s on Khotin Industries out of Edmonton, Alberta.

Best of luck with the weather and have yourself sometime in the garden this weekend!

Autumn, Jean-Michel Jarre and butternut squashes

It ain’t half now turned a bit autumnal especially after the Autumn Equinox (on Saturday at 7.50am). At the end of the garden is a very small bed that has a right mixture of stuff in the tiny space include chillies and Cape gooseberry and peppers too. Also what we thought was some sort of melon may now be a butternut squash (pic below). Will it ripen before the frosts come?

And here’s a tune from Maurice Louca from Cairo a chap we discovered over the weekend while we were researching a forthcoming shortwave mix. From the excellently titled LP Benhayyi Al-Baghbaghan (Salute the Parrot) here’s the percussive monster called Maksim (Maxim) and it’s wonderful stuff. Listen to it a few times in a row and you’ll be noticing bits you never noticed the time before and be wanting to listen to it again. Mad mad stuff.

And while we’re talking about Cairo we’ve just remembered this tune from the excellent Zeb – The Spy From Cairo called Qanun in Dub.

Slug–U–Like?

“Slugs, what are they good for, absolutely nothing” as the song goes. We can’t think of a good reason for having them in the garden. We know that slugs are important as they provide food for birds, insects and all sorts and if we removed them we’d mess up the natural balance but they drive us wild here. We’re sure Bob Flowerdew or someone else reckoned they collected them and imprisoned them in a 1970’s type plastic clothes basket containing salad and garden waste and made them work all day making compost.

We at Weeds would like to redress the balance, so if you’ve heard good things about slugs (apart from providing food for wildlife) we would like to hear from you. We want to hear your tales of slugs who have saved lives, foreseen the future or have helped people to find their way back home on a foggy night. Please email onedeckpete at gmail dot com with your story (do include an address) and the winner of the best story will receive a selection of what’s left over in our seed tin. You don’t get prizes like that offered on other blogs!

There’s no real reason

Yesterday with no plan in our heads we tidied up what we call the “wild bit” at the bottom of the garden. We used to grow veg there but it doesn’t really get that much sun so a couple of years ago we sowed some “bee bombs” and what other wild seeds we could find and the area went a bit wild.

We were very influenced by this wonderful pond made by Bill Shimmers at the time of sowing the wild seeds (above) and added our own versions in a smaller and cheaper way utilising a slow cooker crock pot, a dutch pot that only had one handle and a tupperware box. An example of “down at heel” pond construction at its finest and nowhere as great as Bill’s. We are sure at the time Bill replied to our tweet at the time saying kindly that even the smallest addition of water in the garden will help the wildlife. What is great though yesterday we saw the odd frog in one, a drowned slug or two in the other and some very strange moving things that could have just been the “floaters” in our eyes playing up or the effects of dehydration. That was without our glasses on as well so there could well have been more stuff moving about.

As it was very cool down there for most of the day (compared to the 32 degrees C in the sun) we just started and kept on going, taking stuff away and adding the odd different plants and herbs we have about the garden already. We reckon it will be an ongoing project as we can see a couple of plants we want to take out but we don’t want it too sparse as the wildlife needs a hiding place. There was no plan, make it up on the spot gardening innit?

Enjoy the last couple of days of intense heat as we’re supposed to be going back to the early 20 degree C next week. Here’s to more wildlife in the garden.

A strange strawberry and a tune for a Wednesday

A few months ago we got some seeds (we think they were from Mr Fostergills) and they were a mixed strawberry (red and white). Turns out they are an alpine type strawberry and they are not too bad taste-wise. It was like having a white beetroot a few years ago, it was great but we’ve had some many red beetroots our brains couldn’t compute when it came to a white one!

And found on Bandcamp last night while researching a forthcoming shortwave mix we came across this great stripped down version from outa Darlington from the band Bubamara called Lu Core Meu Dub Version. An excellent tune!

One radio show is never enough

This Sunday 3rd September 2023 the Imaginary Stations crew bring you two shows via the ionosphere on shortwave. The first transmission will be beamed to Europe via the services of Shortwave Gold in Germany at 2000 utc on 6160 kHz and it will be WTBR, tea and biscuits radio.

Expect a teatime assortment of tunes, some musical crackers (without cheese) and a urn full of the finest tea money can buy!

Then later at 2200 hrs UTC on 9395 kHz  via WRMI we bring you another episode of CTRN for all of us who love that wonderful mode of transport, the train.

So tune in, make yourself comfortable, please don’t put your feet on the seats, do have your tickets ready for inspection and enjoy a nice ride across the country by shortwave radio.